Strong community support against drug abuse has been critical to our fight against drugs. Singapore society resolutely rejects drug abuse. Several voluntary welfare organisations run halfway houses to help recovering addicts adjust back into society. Many employers also come forward to offer reformed drug addicts employment opportunities.

With all these efforts, Singapore has one of the lowest prevalence of drug abuse worldwide, even though it has not been entirely eliminated. Over two decades, the number of drug abusers arrested each year has declined by two-thirds, from over 6,000 in the early 1990s to about 2,000 last year. Fewer than two in 10 abusers released from prison or drug rehabilitation centres relapse within two years. We do not have traffickers pushing drugs openly in the streets, nor do we need to run needle exchange centres. Because of our strict laws, Singapore does not have to contend with major drug syndicates linked to organised crime, unlike some other countries.

According to the 2008 World Drug Report by the United Nations office on drugs and crime 8.2% of the UK population are cannabis abusers; in Singapore it is 0.005%. For ecstasy, the figures are 1.8% for the UK and 0.003% for Singapore; and for opiates – such as heroin, opium and morphine – 0.9% for the UK and 0.005% for Singapore.

The opium trade fetched profitable returns considering that the colonial government supported the practice and most smokers were addicted. It made for such a roaring business that from 1825 to 1910, the annual revenue from opium accounted for an average of 30 to 55 percent of the total revenue.8 In another report, the percentage of revenue derived from opium of the total revenue from the colony of the Straits Settlements in the years 1898 to 1906 was between 43.3 and 59.1 percent.9 The government earned most of its revenue by franchising the opium trade to wealthy Chinese businessmen.
Although opium dens could only operate with licenses issued by the government, there were many illegal operators.